To resolve allegations that it breached children’s privacy, exposed kids and teenagers to possible harassment, and tricked players of all ages into making unwanted in-game purchases, the creator of the well-known online video game “Fortnite” has agreed to pay a record settlement.
The North Carolina-based Epic Games will pay a total of $520 million to settle claims that it acquired personal information about minors without first getting their parent’s or guardian’s permission, according to a Federal Trade Commission announcement made on Monday.
Through the default live speech and text features in Fortnite, Epic is also charged with exposing kids and teenagers to bullying, threats, harassment, and harmful and psychologically traumatic subjects like suicide.
Fortnite Creator Will Have To Pay A Massive Fine
The FTC described the button configuration used by Epic to trick players of all ages into purchasing online credits as being “counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing.” These so-called “dark patterns” are thought to have netted Epic hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges from customers. As part of the settlement, Epic committed to revamping its privacy policy, chat and text features, and how it charges game users, although it did not confirm or deny the allegations.
In a statement, Samuel Levine, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, claimed that Epic “placed children and teens at risk through its inadequate privacy practices, and charged customers millions in illegal charges through its use of dark patterns.” The corporation will be obliged to modify its default settings, give millions of dollars back to customers, and pay a record-breaking fine for its privacy violations under the proposed orders issued today.
The payment was disclosed by Fortnite’s creator in a statement on its website. It added, in part, “No developer designs a game to end up here. The Wall Street Journal reports that the most recent valuation of Epic was $32 billion. With approximately 400 million users globally, “Fornite” alone grossed $5.5 billion in 2018 and $3.7 billion in 2019.
